"I can't be too disappointed because I was fourth going into the meet and I beat two of the guys, but that kid beat me by just seven centimeters," Kraay said. "Our team's been trying to get a new attitude--we just haven't had that fire. It's all about competing. He hit that mark with the third throw in prelims, which meant I had three more chances, so I felt like I should have beaten him."

Kraay did, however, manage to beat out Princeton's Scott Denbo--the only person between Kraay and the Outdoor Heps title last year. Denbo threw just 16.55 meters after throwing 17.89 meters last week.

"The nature of track is, if you know someone's coming up behind you, you just don't compete as well," Kraay said. "I don't know if this was just intimidation, but I think he kind of choked, knowing that I was improving and coming up right behind him. I'm sure he won't at Heps, but I plan on throwing a lot better there too."

The level of competition at the meet made it tough for Harvard to get victories in any event. Fergusson was Harvard's top scorer, winning the triple jump at 14.65 meters and finishing just short of the league's best, Yale's Anthony Thomas, in the long jump. Freshman Tekky Andrew-Jaja placed second behind Fergusson in the long jump.

"Princeton's so good, the competition was at the level of Heps in every event," Kraay said.

Buckley, Harvard's only other winner, took the 55-meter hurdles in 7.62 seconds.

In the 55-meter dash, senior Chuck Nwokocha and sophomore Sean Meeker finished two-three in prelims behind Princeton's Cameron Atkinson. They might have done the same in the finals had Nwokocha not false-started. Meeker still placed second at 6.55 seconds.